Proceed With Caution:
This book contains mentions of death and illness, a panic attack, and discussions of social anxiety.
The Basics:
Twice Shy is narrated by twenty-nine-year-old Maybell who has just inherited her great aunt Violet's grand manor and accompanying lands. Or, that's what she's told. Really, Maybell has inherited half of everything and the groundskeeper, Wesley, gets the other half. Maybell has already left her job and her apartment, so she's not giving up her new home, despite her and Wesley having opposing ideas on what to with the house and land. Plus there's a little matter of hidden treasure somewhere. Finder's keepers.
My Thoughts:
Twice Shy suffers from second book syndrome. Sarah Hogle's debut novel You Deserve Each Other was so unique and refreshing, and her sophomore title sounded like it was going to be super cute. Well, it does have a lot of good bits and pieces, but that's all they are. Nothing really fit together for me, and I was mostly bored or annoyed while reading.
The opening of Twice Shy was actually pretty great. Maybell tells us all about how her coworker cat-fished her on a dating app. She thought she had been talking to a wonderful and handsome man named Jack, but it was just Gemma making sure Maybell stayed away from her own boyfriend (which was a nonissue, but whatever). Of course, Gemma comes clean when she was bored of the ruse, Maybell is hurt and embarrassed, and all of that comes rushing back when she goes to move into her aunt's house only to come face-to-face with Jack. Except his name is Wesley. Yikes. I was living for this setup, but that's all it was. A setup. Nothing actually comes from it. Maybell eventually shares this awkward situation with him and then it's never mentioned again.
As for the splitting the manor with a stranger plot, Twice Shy just left me hanging. At first Maybell and Wesley seem to be at odds. They both had plans and they both feel entitled to the property for different reasons. They do set their differences aside to get the place cleaned up and safe to live in, but then they just go about combining their plans. There's no real tension here, but also no real resolution. They both get what they want, but where did they compromise? How is it actually going to work? I want to know!
The one thing that I did really enjoy about Twice Shy was Maybell's crush on Wesley. I didn't like her overall. I found her characterization kind of inconsistent, but her crush! We rarely ever get the crush phase of a relationship. Most romance novels go from zero to sixty, even in YA where crushes run rampant! Maybell actually uses the word crush and laments the fact that she has one on her seemingly grumpy co-inheritor. Crush feels are real.
Twice Shy was just okay. I wish we had gotten more of the renovations and turning the manor into a working hotel and animal sanctuary. The treasure hunt aspect was boring and ended predictably. Maybell wasn't very likeable. Wesley was cute, but too perfect. There just wasn't anything here that stood out or made me care.